Three Fort Bend roads could receive state funding, says H-GAC

Houston-Galveston Area Council hosts meetings on use of Proposition 1 money

By Bryan Kirk

Published 4:18 pm, Tuesday, February 24, 2015

The Houston-Galveston Area Council is making stops in various communities to share information on road projects that will begin this year as a result of the adoption of Proposition 1 in November.

Officials with the H-GAC hosted an open house at the Rosenberg Civic Center recently to share information on three key mobility projects that will impact portions of Fort Bend County.

Those projects include a two-mile stretch of U.S. 90A between the Grand Parkway and Texas 6; a four-mile segment of FM 2234 between FM 521 and the Fort Bend Parkway, and Interstate 69 between Spur 10 and Darst Road.

More Information

I-69

Project: Widen to 6 lanes with auxiliary lanes and 2-lane frontage roads between west of Spur 10 and Darst Road

Total estimated cost: $93.01 million

Source: H-GAC

FM 2234

Project: Widen to 4 lanes between Fort Bend Parkway and FM 521

Total estimated cost: $28.22 million

Source: H-GAC

U.S. 90A

Project: Widen to 6 lanes between Texas 99 and Texas 6

Total estimated cost: $8.30 million

Source: H-GAC

Alan Clark, H-GAC director of transportation and planning, said many of the projects have been on the regional transportation wish list for many years, and many of them were also a long way from being considered.

"For these projects, the money is in the bank and you are hardly ever talking about projects where the money is in the bank," Clark said. "Some of these are regional significant and high-impact projects."

The Interstate 69 project is among those considered high-impact, and comes with an estimated price tag of $93 million.

According to the project details, the plans call for widening I-69 from four to six lanes between Spur 10 and Darst Road as well as adding auxiliary lanes and two-lane frontage roads along that same 7.5-mile segment.

The improvements would upgrade I-69 to full interstate standards, and improve safety and mobility, Clark said.

"This was in our regional plan for 2035, so we are speeding this up 20 years," Clark said.

Other projects, such as the planned improvements to FM 2234 and U.S. 90A are in direct response to the growth in the communities of Sugar Land, Missouri City, Stafford and Richmond/Rosenberg.

"This is going to be needed with all the growth that's coming," said Rosenberg Mayor Vincent Morales. "We were very fortunate that we were able to get U.S. 59 (I-69) re-designated and be able to tap into some federal dollars and get this moving."

Last November, Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment known as Proposition 1, which diverted $1.7 billion from the state's rainy day fund, to pay for needed infrastructure upgrades throughout the state.

Al least 10 of those projects are in the Greater Houston area, and three of them are in the key areas of Fort Bend County.

One of the key contributors to the successful passage of Proposition 1 was the work of a grass-roots organization known as Move Texas Forward, which made the rounds in September and October to stump for votes in favor of the amendment.

"I helped try and get the word out about the Move Texas Forward mobility (initiative). I thought it was a good idea to curtail some of this, since we had such a large surplus in the rainy day fund," said Durlam.

"It was necessary to get this done, but this is only a drop in the bucket to get done what we need done throughout Texas. This will bring our roads up to a mediocre standard."

Durlam said All-Terra, which has bid on projects associated with the Fort Bend Mobility Project, will also submit bids toward the three Fort Bend projects when they are advertised in commissioner's court, hopefully sometime this spring, Clark said.